Good Friday Randomness

**giveaway winner announced at the end of this post.

A Happy Good Friday to everyone. Yes, we call the day that the government literally killed God, "Good Friday." Or, as I saw someone put it on Twitter:

Only in Christianity can the torture, judicial railroading, false imprisonment & public murder of our founder be called "Good Friday."

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And as someone else posted on Twitter:

So, yeah. Earth Day—today? The earth is protesting,“Do not honor me! Honor the One who died to lift the curse from which I groan to be freed!”

Yes, in a strange irony, today is also Earth Day - although personally I prefer to celebrate Industrial Revolution Day, considering more people have died from banning DDT than from nuclear meltdowns.

You know, the first Earth Day was in 1970, 41 years ago. For your amusement, here are some of the environmental predictions they made 41 years ago today. Enjoy:

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”

• George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”

• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”

• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970

“Air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.”

• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’”

• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”

• Sen. Gaylord Nelson

“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”

• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

For more entertaining environmental inanity, click here.

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I'm still working through my collection of documentaries for next month's Movie Monday docu theme. *sigh* There's so much to learn out there, I love it. Get ready, it will be fun!

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Oops, I totally forgot to include this!

Have you heard about the Weird Al/Lady Gaga fiasco that went on? Yes, I really do enjoy some Weird Al. And some Lady Gaga. And really, Weird Al covering Lady Gaga is, I think, a no-brainer.

Anyway, Weird Al contacted Lady Gaga a while ago and asked to cover her latest hit, "Born This Way" (which I actually haven't heard yet). Now, legally, you are not required to get permission from artists for parodying their work. But Weird Al does, because he's that kind of guy. And usually he gets the "up or down vote" before he begins working on the song.

But Gaga - or Gaga's people - told him they wouldn't give their blessing on the project until they heard the song. So, he writes it and records it and sends it to them. And they say, "No," they would not approve him releasing it on his next album.

So what's a guy to do after all that work? Release it on youtube, of course!

I enjoy Gaga music, but as a person/performer, I really can't stand her, so I love this song. And, as you saw, once Gaga's people saw the huge success it had on youtube, they green-lighted it for release on his album. Free markets are wonderful.

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And the winner of the Tupperware giveaway is:

Yay ae!! I'll get you in touch with our sponsor!

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I hope everyone has a fantastic Easter weekend in your own tradition as we celebrate the Messiah's redemption of His people.

Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised,

and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

And who can speak of his descendants?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

After the suffering of his soul,

he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

~ Isaiah 53